Cycle trip day 83: arriving in Athens
Written by Kat
Our transfer from Tirana in a minivan worked brilliantly and we enjoyed a running commentary from our driver about Albania, while we showed off the very few words of Albanian we'd picked up (much to his delight). We went through a 2km tunnel which bikes aren't allowed in (the alternative is to climb over 1000m to get over the mountain) then he left us at the side of a road in a small village. It wasn't ideal starting after midday as it was already hot and it was a challenging day of cycling but very beautiful. The next couple of days confirmed that Albania is wonderful to cycle in and we'd absolutely made the right decision to skip the hardest part.
After so much peaceful, beautiful countryside our last night in Albania was unexpected - Ksamil is quite the party town with booming discos and searchlights on the beach. We carefully planned to use up our remaining Albanian currency but weren't expecting a cash-only 50m ferry crossing on the way to the border - luckily we had just enough and crossed into Greece with under 10p worth of Lek!
It was quite a relief to get back to the EU: mobile phone data roaming, back to the Euro and electronic payments everywhere, good quality roads, and generally everything more predictable and reliable. We'd never visited Greece before and didn't really know what to expect; the biggest shock was how undeveloped and full of nature it is. We were expecting more resorts but instead we had long stretches in fairly lush, unspoilt countryside with just tiny towns or a handful of low-rise villas.
We took four days to reach Mesolonghi where we had a rest day and celebrated our 27th wedding anniversary. They were commemorating the 200th anniversary of a dramatic siege during the Greek War of Independence, which resulted in the death of Lord Byron who had joined the fight against the Ottoman Empire. From there it was another 4 days of less beautiful and more challenging cycling along the coast of the Gulf of Corinth. We had very strong headwinds, roadworks and long stretches alongside major highways. On the plus side, we bumped into a fellow cyclist we'd met 2 months before in Italy and met some new cycle buddies.
The final test was arriving in Athens which ended up being a very hot 96km ride after we went to the wrong ferry port on the island of Salamina. Only regular pit stops for ice-creams and sugary drinks got us through. When we finally arrived exhausted at our destination, it turned out our apartment was on the 5th floor and the bikes didn't fit in the lift so we had to carry them up. But the views from the roof are amazing.
All our planned cycling in Greece is now complete, from here it's an overnight ferry to the island of Chios and from there a ferry to mainland Turkey. We keep pinching ourselves that we're actually here. In many ways Athens has always felt like a sort of destination because most of the cycling is now over. We'll spend the next few days enjoying the sights of Athens and trying to stay out of the sun.